Elves
by sweet-taboos
Summary: [Complete] A continuation of 'Insanity'. Side stories of an Elves younger years and how she became so spiritually powerful. [Stories are in the past and present.]
1. Journey: The Enchanting Voice

**A/N:** '**Insanity**' is on hiatus. I can't find the right words to describe the story concept or the plot. So I'm taking a break for as long as I need to get new ideas. As to how I managed to write six chapters is beyond me, but miraculously I did it.

But... usually when authors are on hiatus they come up with different kinds of ideas for certain kinds of stories. These short stories that I have written, is just my imagination at it's fullest. Also each chapter is at a different time in Iva's life. Some are when she was a kid, some are in the past, or are in present day.

But knowing me, I'm horrible at writing descriptive scenes. So I had a very good friend help me with most of the descriptions, the setting, and the emotions of Iva that are to come.

So, I guess if you were interested in '**Insanity**' or the main character, Iva, then this is the right place for you.

**Some interesting information**: The word "elf " is written with a capital letter, like "Elf."**  
Meaning**: Large creatures, with blond, almost silver hair.

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_"When the first baby laughed for the very first time,_ _The laugh broke into a thousand pieces,_ _And they all went skipping about,_ _And that was the beginning of elves."_

**Journey: The Enchanting Voice**

From outside my window in the early morning hour, I hear a voice that calls out in a beautiful, melodious voice. I slowly rise from my soft, warm bed, and step toward the window. As I do, I step beyond the bounds of my physical reality. I step beyond myself, stretching my awareness into another realm and reaching out to my full potential.

As my mind moves from a light sleep to full consciousness, I am suddenly aware of the enchanting quality of the voice I hear. I stare out the window for a few minutes, mesmerized by its cadence, before getting on my clothes and going out to explore the origins of the enchanting voice.

As I walk outside, the crisp morning air caresses my face, and my skin tingles. I walk down a gravel driveway that winds toward the general direction of the inviting voice. As I walk, the voice seems to envelop and surround me, making it difficult to determine where it is coming from. The dawning light of the sun is just becoming visible, and the pine and oak trees loom like giant shadows all around me. Rather than feeling menacing, they seem like giant protectors, standing guard along the way.

Upon reaching the end of the gravel driveway, I see the dark outline of a small path that leads downward into the vegetation that grows quite thickly together, making traveling impossible except on already traversed pathways. As I move down the path, I am greeted by the musty smell of the forest floor. I take a deep breath, and as I exhale, I become increasingly aware that the enchanting voice is louder and calls me ever closer, like a beacon of another world.

Further down the pathway, I smell water. I hear a tinkling of a creek. The sound of the water seems to provide background accompaniment to the enchanting voice. Although there is a path, I still have to make my way through the dense undergrowth that grows under the thick canopy of trees.

As I continue through the undergrowth, I can sense Nature all around me in her inherent splendor and divinity. The father I walk, the more I become one with the Natural beauty around me. I pause to say a short prayer of thanks to the sacred land. As I walk on, the voice is clearer and closer.

Finally, I reach a shallow creek with a small waterfall that flows over white blocks of milky quartz-crystal. I stop to rest and to get my bearings. In the still shadowy world of the early morning, I see a greenish-blue creature stir within the waterfall. At first I think I am seeing things, but continuing to watch, I instinctively know that what I am seeing is a Nature Elf, in particular a Water sprite.

For the flicker of an instant, time seems irrelevant and out of focus and the moment becomes an hour. Looking into the eyes and listening to the enchanting voice of the waterfall elf. I realize that the elf is the underlying spirit of Nature, in all it's many aspects. The elf element in everything is that which gives spiritual life and beauty.

Sitting next to the waterfall, I look into the elf's eyes and I see my reflection. I see my ideal self, my beautiful and compassionate self. I also glimpse past and future lifetimes, flowing from the same spiritual well. The world I enter seems familiar, but there is something very different. Like looking in a mirror, I feel I am seeing everything reversed. My perception and awareness seem altered.

As I stand hearing the enchanting voice in all it's splendor with Nature, the greenish-blue elf eyes meet mine and I can suddenly imagine living life to its fullest potential, I imagine miraculous things like world peace, cures for all disease and illness, and a kinder, gentler world, where life seems more fluid and exciting and people are more tolerant. I feel a peaceful, easy energy washing over my body like the waterfall. This feeling empowers me and I feel at one with myself, with the water elf, and with the world around me.

In my life, the enchanting voice represents a calling that leads me back home. Like a salmon moving back up stream to spawn, I feel propelled the seek out my roots, and get a feeling for who I really am. While growing closer to the land around me, I realize my roots have something to do with the energy of the fae, who traditionally were the animate symbols of Nature and Spirit. As out energies connect, I am aware of the completion of a circle that is as ancient as recorded time. Now, the enchanting voice resonates within my being, and we become one.

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So far, I've written three chapters, but I still need to think of more chapter ideas of how to define what elves do. It's a little complicated to explain, but I'm hopefully letting you learn about elves, while reading a interesting short story at the same time. And like I said above, each chapter is going to be different. Thought I'd let you know, just to get your imagination started. .

**Nekio-chan**


	2. Journey: The Shapeshifter

  
  
**Some interesting information**: According to Norse mythology, elves and dwarves are created in the time before humans from the body of Ymir, the giant. Inhabiting one of the upper worlds, and often found in Natural settings suck as woodlands and forests, elves are somewhere between mortal and divine.

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"Elves, black, gray, green, and white,  
You moonshine revelers and shades of night,  
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,  
_Attend your office and your quality._"

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Journey: The Shapeshifter

I sit with my eyes wide open as the person before me shifts shapes. I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Beginning as a small, elderly looking man with elfin features, she transforms into a giant, silver-furred she-wolf. She looks in my eyes, and I can see the moon reflected in hers. The wolf beckons me to mount her back. I climb on, putting my arms around her neck. We travel so quickly that everything around us movies as if in slow motion. Images go from blurry to suddenly very clear.

Riding along the she-wolf's back, I see an image of a tree nymph as it scampers up the side of an ancient oak tree with a trunk the size of a small house. The oak's mighty branches reach out like giant, gnarled arms toward the sunlight. The tree nymph stops on the trunk, and looks in my eyes, for an instant, I feel the connection between us. I am aware of the spirit of the trees, and I am the trees and the trees are me. In that instant of complete connection, I know that life is more than the black and white world that I thought was "real."

As I continue traveling on the she-wolf's back, I see the image of a small winged being who movies like a dragonfly through the woods. She is the Element of Air, and I feel myself becoming her and being blown about the wind. In this state, I realize that struggling against the wind is futile, but to move with the wind is divine. I feel myself blown to and fro in all directions. After a few minutes, I find myself, once again, on the wolf's back moving through the woods.

Soon, I see an image of a enormous salamander who looks just like a fire dragon. One of the most volatile of Elements, Fire is the creation of Life, and instantly eradicates anything in its way. The enormous salamander stops to bask in the sun, happy and content. Watching this giant being, I know that there are two sides to everything. In creation there is destruction, and in destruction there is creation. They are divinely tied together.

As I continue riding, I see the image of a Water sprite swimming in a pool. The water looks bottomless and as infinite as all of Oneness. Time and space are relative to experience, which is relative to the overall pattern of things. Pools of water become creeks that become streams that become rivers, lakes, and oceans. Each pattern in life is part of a bigger, connected pattern that makes up the whole of everything.

Whether Earth, Air, Fire, or Water, all life is make up of Elements. Each Element has a lesson to teach. As embodiments of Nature, Elves often directly correspond to the Elements. These relate back to the basic beginnings of the elves and Nature itself.

As I continue on the wolf's back, time fold into itself. She disappears and I find myself standing in front of an oak tree whose wrinkled image suggests the very fabric of time, and whose eyes look directly into mine. Its roots are like anchors that stretch deep within the earth. Its trunk, branches, and leaves move out into the air. Its entire being moves upward towards the light of the sun, signifying the Water of Life.

Starting into the eyes of the oak, I see a future filled with magickal beings. As both my ancestors and the entities that dwell within the land, I know the elves are like guardian angels and spirit guides who help me along my way.

As my eyes move, I see the shapeshifter can be anyone or anything. I understand now that things are what they are on the inside, no matter what kinds of outside images they portray. Like candles, the woods, the magickal beings, and the land of illusion melts away leaving only that which remains - the eternal flame that burns in the hearts and spirits of everything that lives within the flicker of a lifetime.

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I edited this chapter. It was a little different, but I allowed you to 'envision' the oak trees better than before. The next chapter should be out very soon.

**Nekio-chan**


	3. Journey: Magickal Being Gathering

**Some interesting information**: Originally Elves are between 5 and 7 ft. tall, they were thin, strong, flexible, and quick. Their hair was usually red, blond, white, or light brown, and they have cat-like ears. Their cat-like eyes are green, blue, silver, or gold with slitted pupils.

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_"The land of elves,  
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,  
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,  
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue...  
Land of heart's desire,  
Where beauty has no ebb, decay nor flood  
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song."_

**Journey: Magickal Being Gathering**

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I had a dream last night, a dream that seemed very real, both when I was dreaming and when I awoke in the morning. 

The dream begins with me waking along a winding dirt road. The road is very worn and its boundaries are carefully outlined with large granite and crystal stones. At times I feel I know where I'm going along this road, and other times I feel I'm lost. At times, familiar nature signs here and there assure me that I know where I'm going, other times, the signs are completely unfamiliar, and once again, I feel totally lost.

Wandering and wondering around within the space between here and there, and how and then, I happen upon a magickal being dressed in a soft blue tunic, who seems especially intent on where she is going. Her elfin features are small and delicate, he hair light and long, and her eyes are a golden green color and slitted like a cat's. She is tall and thin. I beckon the elfin lady to stop a moment, and I ask her, "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Drawing her attention to me unfortunately also draws attention of her companion, a silver-furred wolf-like creature that immediately comes at me, snarling and barring its teeth. I step back slowly, and she calls the creature back with a brief hand signal. She looks at me with her golden eyes for a moment before speaking, "I'm on my way to the celebration of the magickal beings," she says.

With my curiosity aroused, I ask her if I might accompany her. She nods and I step in line with her, and we continue down the road. Her wolf-like companion stays at her side, barely tolerating me, while constantly sniffing and looking at our surroundings. The wolf hesitates now and again, but continues by his mistress's side.

A little further down the earthen road we encounter another magickal being. He is covered with brown hair. His face is dark brown, and shriveled with the lines of time. Each movement he makes seems to course another highway of wrinkles across his face, signaling where he's been in life. The old, wizened being stumbles and falls. I offer him my hand, and he lifts himself back to the road, and thanks me. As his hand touches mine, I feel a well of energy that stretches out past generations. I glimpse a knowledge that electrifies my very core and, at the same time, I feel a complete absolute peacefulness fill me. From the two polarities, I realize that the distance from one point in infinity to the next, from here to there, from now to then, is both an instant and eternity, depending upon my perspective and in what realm my awareness dwells.

We all travel together further down the rock-lined, earthen road. Soon we encounter magical beings of all shapes and sizes. Like ourselves, all of them are going to the magickal beings gathering. The closer we got to our destination, the more I feel the magickal energy of the elf filling the well of my soul with their ancient spiritual knowledge, wisdom that has been passed down even before the beginning of time.

I stop on the edge of the road for a moment to look at a giant sunflower in full bloom. Its golden petals stretch out to their fullest. A sweet scent catches the attention of my nose, and looking down I see the source is a mass of white honeysuckle blossoms that cover the ground just below the sunflower.

Bending down to better smell the sweet aroma of the flowers, my eyes move down the vine-like stalks of the honeysuckle, resting on the image of a small, bluish-green winged creature sitting on a leaf just below one of the fragrant blossoms. I smile, and the tiny faery sprite smiles back. For a moment I feel a connection with both the faery and the essence of honeysuckle. My being is suddenly fragrant and my inner beauty blossoms in that magickal moment.

The elfin lady, clad in the blue tunic, beckons me to her side, and once again I am moving along the path towards the magickal being celebration. I see a fabulously lush garden filled with flowers of every kind. The garden and its flowers grow in a circular formation around a giant rock altar, and there is a narrow earthen path that outlines both the garden and flower within it. The giant rock altar looms up out of the North point of the circular garden. 

I feel myself swept up with the others as we all form a circle around the magickal garden, placing our feet on the narrow path and joining hands. On one side of me is an oakman with his red toadstool cap and read nose, and on the other side is a dwarf, a large rotund individual, who seems jovial and a little gruff all at the same time.

With joined hands, we form a giant ring around the garden. We dance clockwise around the garden, again, and again, careful to stay within the narrow path to avoid treading on the breathtaking flowers blooming all around us. With our intention combined, we send a cone of white light that moves across the land until it completely covers the entire planet, our solar system, and then the universe. As we send out the white light, we know that our Earth is sacred. She is our Mother in a very real way. As the light fills the land, I can feel the magick everywhere, in everything and everyone. For that moment and always, I am filled with the magick of the Mother Earth and the beings around me, with the magick of each moment, with the magick of the universe...

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This chapter was mainly about how Iva became so powerful, even though she's considered a half-breed by full-blooded Elves. And Iva was only around 8 or 9 years old when all this happened.  
  
**Nekio-chan**


	4. Journey: Entering Elf Land

Some interesting information: Through time, the elves became Elemental spirits of the land, sea, and forest, who are sometimes portrayed as small to tall, good-natured creatures with brown and pale skin and delicate features. Iron does not kill elves, but it can injure them. They adore gifts of quartz crystal, pearl, moonstone, and silver.

**Gray Elves: **Not choosing to associate with any other magickal beings, they live in isolated meadowland. Gray elves have either silver hair and amber eyes, or pale, golden hair and violet eyes. They are very intelligent and extremely rare.

**A/N: Last chapter**.... Maybe I'll continue to put more chapters up as time goes by. _Maybe._

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_"When I touch that flower, I am touching infinity. It existed long before there were human beings on this earth and will continue to exist for millions of years to come. Through the flower, I talk to the Infinite, which is only a silent force. This is not a physical contact. It is not the earthquake, wind, or fire. It is the invisible world. It is that small voice that calls up the elves."_

**Journey: Entering Elf Land**

From my garden, I walk down the earthen path toward a magnificent ash tree. Its many branches stretch out like arms, in the chill of the late afternoon sun. As I move closer, I see that the base of the tree is about 30 ft. around. I walk past a bed of lavender and the sweet fragrance fills my senses, sending me back in time to when I was a young girl playing in my Nana's garden. I take another deep breath and continue on.

The brittle leaves covering the ground beneath the ash crunch and crackle as I walk under the canopy of the massive tree. I sit down between two gnarled roots, sinuously growing out from the base of the tree. Nestled against the trunk, I watch the shadows of the branches and leaves dance upon the ground. Like the ever-changing ash tree, the shadows have no permanent pattern. The shadows dance over my skin and I merge with them. The play of shadows shows me the essence of the ash. Supple strands of light and darkness weave in the wings of the wind, their canorous voices merging into one.

Immersed in the whispering shadows, my eyes travel from the ash to the ground. I focus on my surroundings and notice a large circle of wild mushrooms in the grass directly to the left of the massive tree. Within the circle, a clump of brightly colored marigolds grow. Their orange and gold heads bob slightly, to and fro, in the gentle wind. I think, '_How strange. This is the wrong time of year for marigolds to be blooming._'

I gasp as the earth within the mushroom circle suddenly begins to crack and spread apart. The yawning chasm in the ground continues to expand and break away until the entire circle is a deep hole. Recovering from my initial surprise and fright. I stand with my hand resting against the ash tree and I crane my head to look down the gaping crack.

I hesitate and move closer, more out of curiosity than caution. As I look down the opening, I see a path descending into the depths, leading to a land beyond.

As if being guided by an unseen hand, I enter the hole. Instead of being surrounded by darkness as I first expected, the underground cave is illuminated with a crepuscular light whose source emanates somewhere behind the distant shadows that stand before me. For the first 90 feet, two sheer granite walls stretch out on either side of the narrow earthen path. Soon the walls give away to a grassy meadow covered with wildflowers of every color. As I move closer to the source of light, I see that the tall distant shadows are actually two giant oaks, standing side by side, about 9 feet apart. They form the gate to the enchanting land of the elves.

I glide through the oak gate and a blinding golden light forces me to shade my eyes as I look around at dozens of exquisite earthen house crowned with the forests branches as roofs. My eyes adjust to the light, and I notice the finely crafted houses dotting the perimeter of a bright golden circle in the center of the town. The circle is covered with golden bricks that appear to be the source of the brilliant streaming light.

I notice a procession of tall people riding beautiful black and white Clydesdales approaching. The people wear green hooded cloaks and their features are soft and pleasing to the eye. The braided manes of the huge horses hang with tiny sliver bells that twinkle as the procession moves closer. In front rides a young women with luminous skin, emerald green eyes, and long, flowing midnight dark hair. Behind the young women rides a red-haired, green-eyed man playing a small flute. The melody from the delicate elf flute, intermingles with the sound of silver bells, creates an enchanting symphony of sound.

The young women smiles as they ride by and the young man nodes his head as his long fingers continue to press down on the holes of the sweet playing flute.

I follow the procession through the village. Everywhere around me the elf folk celebrate, dancing, arms linked, singing ancient songs. Their beautiful voices join together in a perfect cadence.

I watch the singing and dancing for a long time, but eventually close my eyes and drift to sleep. When I wake up, I find myself, once again, under the massive ash tree where my adventure began. I look at the Elf Ring in the grass. To my amazement there are now twice as many marigolds blooming as there were before. I touch the blossoms gently for a few minutes, smiling and remembering the enchanting land of the elves. As the afternoon light dims and the air grows colder, I stand up, stretch my body, and follow the earthen path back to my garden.

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This chapter was mainly about how Iva got her certain _smell_. Again, last chapter.

**Nekio-chan**


End file.
